Message From Smedley Butler

Email to Bill Huff: “There is a message to mothers from General Butler. It tells them to keep their sons at home. It goes something like this: ‘Remember how you used to rub the back of your son’s neck while he was sleeping when he was little? He didn’t wake up. He knew it was you.’ Then the general gets down to business: ‘Imagine a battlefield on a cold rainy night. At the flash of lightning, you see a Marine (or soldier) entangled in barb wire. He’s having trouble breathing. He’s very thirsty. He’s dying. THAT’S YOUR SON.’

“The general goes on to tell them to keep their sons at home. I am an old Marine Gunny Sergeant from the Korean War (Inchon), and I can’t think of that message without weeping.”

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9:06 am on April 22, 2008